‘Secret Agent’ Watch Mixes Hi-Tech Guts With Innovative Display

Division Furtive's "Type 40" watch will be the first in a series of James Bond-inspired timepieces.

Being a fictional British secret agent has its perks — an Aston Martin, unlimited martinis, a license to pun, and of course, an endless array of gadgets from Q. If you want to get geared up like a make-believe spy but are operating on a real-life budget, Division Furtive is the quartermaster for the creative class.

Division Furtive is a one-man gizmo operation created by Gabriel Ménard, a hardware engineer from Montreal. He started his career developing PCBs and other hardware for clients like Best Buy, but dreamed of creating products that demonstrate his eye for design.

His first product, the Type 40 wrist watch, attempts to capture the showy elegance of ultra-high-end timepieces befitting a secret intelligence officer, but at a bargain price. And with the campaign for the 40, he is also teasing the Type 46, an even fancier option for the Casino Royale set. In both cases, Ménard has developed cool, showcase designs that virtualize functionality that is costly and physical, such as replacing complex watch mechanics with microprocessors and micro-stepper motors.

The Type 40 displays time linearly with a series of amber LEDs, but can’t be set by human hands. Instead, the watch is set by placing it on the face of a smartphone, tablet, or computer screen where the watch’s built-in light sensor interpret a series of flashing lights produced by a companion app. The watch is automatically calibrated and can even account for daylight saving time. It’s an experience worthy of a spy movie, but also carries the risk on inducing an epileptic seizure.

The timepiece is limited to 1,000 Kickstarted units, the serial number of each physically built into the 3-D printed casing of the watch. Backers will be able to claim a serial number of their choosing via the Division Furtive website by entering a special code. Fair warning: To get a “00” number, backers will need to pay a premium.

As innovative as the timepiece’s mechanics are, they come at a cost: size. The watch’s 50 mm diameter is large but manageable, but at 16 mm, it’s thicker than two iPhone 5’s stacked on your wrist, which will make covert activities challenging. It’s powered by a AAA battery (hence the girth), which is said to cover a year of standby time.

Designer Gabriel Ménard is taking advantage of 3-D printing to personalize the serial number into the case.

If the Type 40’s campaign succeeds, it will enable Ménard to finish development on the Type 46, which features the same linear approach to displaying time, but does so with cool mechanical cursors instead of LED lights. Making the watch even cooler is an accelerometer that can detect when the wearer has their wrist at a 45-degree angle, activating the cursors and displaying the time.

The Type 46, a mechanical, metallic version of the Type 40, will be produced as a limited edition.

The watch will be the same size as its predecessor but will cost significantly more, at $3,600. The premium cost comes from the additional components and lengthy development cycle. Ménard has gone through five iterations of the design so far, saying “it was very challenging to keep the linear cursor balanced — just to make the proof of concept took me a year. The last challenge I have to face is reliability — when the cursor gets to one end or the other it can be chaotic. It’s reliable now, but I need to make it pristine.”

Instead of a 3-D printed case, the Type 46 features a silver housing coated in black Rhodium and nano-ceramics which are baked in an industrial kiln for a high-quality finish. He says “over a month of my life was spent finding a coating for this watch.”

In accordance with Kickstarter’s new guidelines, the Type 46 is not offered as a backer reward — instead, would-be Bonds will need to pony up £46 to receive a pre-order token that allows them to purchase it later.

Playing along with the theme, Kickstarter launched Ménard’s campaign in the U.K. today at 00:07. Ménard is proud to be one of the early adopters of Kickstarter’s newest location. He says there are some financial reasons for this, but also that “James Bond is British. I like the feeling of using the British Pounds for pledges.”

Ménard is radically simplifying the mechanics of the device to reduce cost, while ensuring a “00” experience.